Opinion: One thing all mass shooters have in common is guns not mental illness

A woman holds a sign after a silent march to Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center for the victims of the Walmart shootings in El Paso August 4, 2019. Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in a mass shooting at Walmart on Saturday.(Photo: Michael Chow/The Republic)

After my children were born, I struggled with postpartum depression. When we were teenagers, my brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. A dear friend is fighting alcoholism. Two members of my family are being treated for anxiety. What do we all have in common? We’ve all been diagnosed with a mental illness. What else do we have in common? None of us are mass shooters.

In the wake of every mass shooting, time and again we hear many politicians shift the focus – and the blame – from gun control to mental illness. We need to be vocal and vehement in pushing back on this false narrative.

First, claiming that people with mental illnesses are to blame for mass shootings is a premise that is simply not true. People with mental illnesses are actually less likely than the general population to perpetrate mass violence. Continuing to trot out this talking point after every mass shooting only drives people with mental illnesses further into the shadows. Who wants to admit they have a mental illness when politicians continue to equate them with people who do horrendous things?

Mourners gather for a vigil at the scene of a mass shooting on Aug. 4, 2019, in Dayton, Ohio.(Photo: John Minchillo, AP)

Second, even if a mass shooter is mentally ill, his illness isn’t what killed our friends and neighbors – a gun did. Tighter gun control laws, which the majority of Americans support, are what will prevent people who should not own weapons from being able to access them. The mental illness is not the problem; allowing people with some mental illnesses to access guns is.

Third, while some mass shooters are mentally ill, we know that people in countries around the globe have mental illnesses. Yet, we are the only country that has a problem with mass shootings. We also know that both men and women have mental illnesses. But about 98% of mass shootings are perpetrated by men. People of all races have mental illnesses. But the vast majority of mass shooters in our country are white. If mental illness was the cause of mass shootings, we’d see people of all genders and all races and in countries around the world perpetrating this crime at the same rates. Since that’s not the case, it defies logic to place the blame for mass shootings on mental illness.

Finally, all mass shooters do not have a mental illness, but they do all have a gun.

To repeat: the thing all mass shootings have in common is not mental illness. It’s guns.

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Air Force One lands at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on Aug. 7, 2019, as President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visits Dayton, Ohio, following the mass shooting that left nine dead and 27 injured early Sunday morning. Albert Cesare/The Enquirer

President Donald Trump is greeted by Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, after arriving at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to meet with people affected by the mass shooting. Evan Vucci, AP

President Donald Trump waives at the media on the tarmac at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, on Aug. 7, 2019. Trump arrived to help Dayton grieve in the wake of Sunday's mass shooting that left ten people dead, including the gunman, and others injured. Albert Cesare, USA TODAY Network

Miguel de Anda, born and raised in El Paso, holds a sign reading 'Trump Not Welcome Here' at a protest against President Trump's visit following a mass shooting, which left at least 22 people dead, on Aug. 7, 2019. Mario Tama, Getty Images

Supporters of President Donald Trump demonstrate in the Oregon District, where a mass shooting early Sunday morning left nine dead and 27 wounded, on Aug. 7, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. Trump visited the city today to offer his support. Scott Olson, Getty Images

Demonstrators gather to protest the arrival of President Donald Trump outside Miami Valley Hospital after a mass shooting that occurred in the Oregon District early Sunday morning, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, in Dayton. A gunman opened fire in Dayton early Sunday, killing several people including his sister, before officers fatally shot him. John Minchillo, AP

People gather near Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio to protest on Aug. 7, 2019. President Donald Trump is expected to visit victims of a deadly mass shooting who are being treated at the hospital. Meg Vogel, Cincinnati Enquirer via USA TODAY Network

I absolutely support expanding resources for mental health care because it’s consistently underfunded and difficult to access, not because mental illness is responsible for mass shootings. Unfortunately, many of the people who blame mental illness for mass shootings are the same people who have been working hard to reverse the strides made under the Affordable Care Act when it comes to mental health coverage.

The ACA has its faults, but mental health services have to be covered under essential health benefits. Almost every version of a health care bill put forth by the Republicans would have decimated access to mental health care, and the refusal by the Trump administration’s Justice Department to defend the ACA in court means insurance companies may be allowed to go back to denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Anxiety and depression both make the list of the top 10 most common pre-existing conditions for Americans. Instead of expanding access to mental health care, Republicans at the federal level have consistently restricted access.

Blaming mass shootings on mental illness is offensive to everyone with a mental illness. It succeeds in further stigmatizing mental illness while distracting attention from where the blame belongs: on guns. Providing better mental health care is important for us as a society but it won’t prevent mass shootings. The only thing that has been proven in countries around the world to prevent mass shootings is the same thing that the majority of Americans support: passing sensible gun control laws.

Elisa Hoffman is a parent and education advocate who lives in East Hyde Park and has called Cincinnati home for the past 15 years.